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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
This moody JACK KIRBY illustration first appeared as the splash page of The INCREDIBLE HULK #1 in 1962, but was pressed into service as a variant cover a couple or so years back (2016 to be exact). I've just acquired it on eBay (for next-to-nothing, too), so thought I'd kindly share the image with you here. Great, innit?
Kid, just wondering what your take on 'modern colouring on old art' was? I'm one of those that THOUGHT it would be a good idea, but when you see some off the over rendered stuff done on classic comics (e.g. Dark Horse's reprints of Barry Smith Conans) you suddenly realise the line work wasn't done for that style of colouring....The Hulk illo above is fairly restrained but sometimes it all goes a bit OTT really!
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the results I suppose, V&S. I quite liked the colouring (in the main) on the Dark Horse reprints of Conan, as it gave them an extra dimension. What bugged me more was that they left off the Conan banner at the top of some of the splash pages. So, as long as I have the strips as they were originally coloured, I don't mind seeing them again in a fresh, recoloured presentation, though I don't always agree with their choice of colours. There are a few posts on the blog about recolouring: The Power Of Colour and Spider-Man Remastered.
ReplyDeleteGood point Kid, sometimes it's not just the more modern technique, but the palette used....sometime I find it a bit overpowering to the point where the linework is almost obliterated!
ReplyDeleteSometimes that's deliberate though, in instances where an outline is supposed to suggest an object disappearing or phasing out; then it's rendered in a colour to convey that visually. I like the 3D effect the new colouring bestows on the pictures, but, like you say, I don't always like the palette used.
ReplyDeleteWhen this appeared in Fantastic and Terrific No.70, the UK editors added a night sky to the background which was very effective - and it was many years before I discovered it was not part of the original.
ReplyDeleteI remember it, PW, but I seem to recall thinking it was a little primitively rendered when I last looked. I must dig out the issue and check. I was on holiday in Largs in 1968 when Fantastic #70 first came out. Happy days, 'cos it was during that holiday I got my Steve Zodiac and Zoony on a jetmobile toy. (And a bendy Captain Scarlet.)
ReplyDeleteI bought the Thor 'Tales of Asgard' collection that used this modern colouring and I wasn't all that impressed. It overpowers the inks in my opinion. I'd prefer traditional flat colour if that's what the original publication used. You get a lot of Kirby pages in the 'zines, re-inked by any pro rather than Vince Colletta. But even if you could have everything re-inked by Sinnott and re-coloured by some computer, it's not the real thing is it? The original version, whatever it's faults, is the thing that drew us into this in the first place...
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, but I actually quite liked the recoloured Tales of Asgard collection, because it made it all seem fresh and new. And I have the luxury of having them as they were originally in (a few) original issues and Masterworks and Omnibus volumes.
ReplyDeleteI saw a Thor splash page re-inked by Mike Royer, which was slightly more faithful to Kirby's pencils, but I still prefer Vinnie Colletta's inks on Thor because he gave the strip more than he ever took away. True, his inks didn't suit every artist, but I think they were ideal on Kirby's Thor and Colan's Sub-mariner.
Kirby really needed having his more abstract, cartoony style subdued (in my opinion) and Colletta was the very man for the job.